


Hope (Finn Appreciation Week - Day 6)

by orphan_account



Series: Finn Appreciation Week 2018 [5]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-19 06:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14231130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Finn and Leia have a big discussion, and some truths are revealed.





	Hope (Finn Appreciation Week - Day 6)

The golden light of the setting sun through Bespin's clouds flooded the hallway leading to the medbay's laboratory. It cast Finn's elongated shadow on the other wall, as he sat on a bench, waiting for the test results to come up. He held his hands tightly together on his lap to keep himself from biting off his nails. After fifteen minutes of waiting, the lab technician opened the door and handed him a datachip. Finn took it with a trembling hand, thanking them profusely. 

He sat back on the bench, inserted the chip in his datapad, and took a deep breath before opening the file.

Moments later, his shadow ran across the wall until Finn stopped in front of the general's room. The door opened before he had to knock. Finn was clutching the datapad against his chest. What he had read made his head dizzy and his blood rush to his ears.

General Organa was sitting at the end of her bed. She gave him an inquiring look.

"It's positive," Finn said so quickly he wasn't sure the general would be able to understand him. He needed to voice it right away - it felt too heavy for him to keep it for himself for one more moment. His whole body trembled as he stood now voiceless before General Organa.

Her expression grew soft, and sad.

"You are his son," she stated in a low voice.

Finn nodded. A lump in his throat kept him from speaking, and even from breathing, it seemed. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. He didn't even know why he was crying.

I am someone's son. I know the name of my father.  
My father is Luke Skywalker.  
Was.

It had all begun in Crait's derelict mine, as the last of the Raddus' survivors watched Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi Master, walk towards the open gate and the First Order troops.

He and Finn exchanged a look.

Finn's heart had stopped beating. Something long forgotten had started to ascent from the depths of his memories back to the surface. He had seen a glimmer in Skywalker's eyes, a brief, sad smile, akin to the one Finn was now seeing on the General's lips. And then Luke had turned away before Finn could even remember what he had forgotten. He resumed his walk, and he didn't look behind again.

Finn hadn't wanted to let the man go, but Poe had stopped him. He was saving them all, Poe had said, and Finn shouldn't waste his chance - their last chance. Poe had been right.

It had begun on Crait and it could have ended on the Millennium Falcon, when Finn had felt Luke Skywalker's presence vanish from this world.  
But it hadn't. Finn saw him again, in the early hours of the morning; a spectral presence disappearing mere seconds after Finn noticed it. He saw him in his dreams. Sometimes it was just the two of them, standing of the edge of a cliff and watching the cold waves hitting the rocks below. Other times, he could see Rey and the general as well. The most intriguing dreams took place in a thick forest after nightfall; along with Skywalker, he saw a woman whom he felt drawn to, like he was drawn to Skywalker. My mother, Finn had realized, when he had looked at her and saw that she had his nose and lips and skin. He was sure of it like he had never been sure of anything before in his life.

As she was his mother, could it mean…?

A hope (crazy, impossible hope) had appeared in his mind. He hadn't managed to shake it off his head. It was the hope that the place where he belonged was far closer than he had imagined. 

A week later, he had gathered all his courage to speak about it to the General.

"Did Skywalker have any children?" Finn had asked her. 

"Had." She had lowered her gaze, flattening the creases of her skirt with the flat of her hand.

"After the New Republic was established, and peace had mostly been restored through the Galaxy, my brother explored the Wild Space, for clues about the beginning of the Jedi Order. On a distant system, he met a woman named Ayorinde. Luke didn't talk much to me about her or their relationship. I think he wanted to build a family for himself, away from the shadow cast by our legacy." She had taken in a ragged breath. "His time was split between his life on Sentooine with his wife and his son, and his life with me, Han and Ben…

One day, he sensed a great danger while he was with us. He ran to them… but it was too late. He only told me about it once. All the adults had been squared up on the spaceport and executed. The children were nowhere to be found; taken away by their parents' murderers. Luke spent three years scouting all of the Galaxy's known slave markets, following every lead he could find about children his son's age. But the children were nowhere to be found. As if they had simply vanished."

"First Order tactics," Finn had realized. They had been taken as cadets. Skywalker had searched for his son in the wrong directions. But how could he have possibly known?

"When… when did it happen? When did his son went missing?" Finn had asked, voice shaking. It all had hinged on the general's answer.

"About twenty years ago." There was a new spark in her eyes, and a small smile on her lips now. Finn had realized that General Organa had already known what Finn had been thinking about. "After Ben went… when Luke left, I got custody of his belongings. He kept many holos of Ayorinde and of their son. If I remember the dates right, I would say his son must have been between two and a half and three years old when he was taken away.

A jolt of electricity had gone through Finn's body. "So I could be…" It could explain so much. His recently discovered Force sensitivity, the dreams, the pull he had felt towards Skywalker on Crait. But he couldn't bring himself to voice it yet. 

"There is only one way to find out, Finn." She had taken Finn's hand between hers. The touch had been both calming and energizing at once.

"Do you want to find out, Finn?" she asked.

It's insane, Finn had thought. Maybe I'm just deluding myself. But the idea of finally putting names and faces on his parents… It had been too tempting.

"Yes," Finn had answered, looking into the general's eyes.

General Organa had called for a nurse to take a DNA sample of them both. He had told them they could wait here if they wished - the results would be available in fifteen minutes. Finn had followed the nurse instead - he hadn't wanted to wait any longer to know.

And then he knew, and he felt the world around him change.

The general stood up, leaning on her cane. She wrapped her free arm around his shoulders. He breathed in the scent of her perfume, felt the metal of her ring against the skin of his neck.

Doors he didn't know existed suddenly opened. His roots that the First Order tried to cut off dug into the ground. His story intertwined with the Galaxy's past, present and future.

Luke Skywalker.  
Leia Organa, of course.  
And Darth Vader. Kylo Ren.

The shadow of his father's legacy, the general had said. Now it was his as well. They had done so much good, and so much bad to the Galaxy. No one could tell whether the Light and the Dark would win this time around.

"I'm scared," Finn finally said through his tears. The fear had taken him by surprise. He hadn't thought beyond what could be between him and Luke Skywalker as he waited for the results. There was darkness in this family - was there darkness inside him, too? Was he going to fall like his cousin and destroy what Skywalker and Organa had built? 

The general cradled his jaw, rubbing her thumb over his wet cheek. He looked at her and saw that she understood him. This was something she went through herself, he realized. Finn made an effort to gather himself. She was the general, after all.

"It's normal to be scared," she said with infinite softness. "You've inherited a great power, like my brother did. Like I did." She smiled. "And I trust you with it. You're kind, compassionate, and fair. Not even the First Order could take these qualities away from you. Finn, know that even if my brother is gone, and that when I'll be gone, we both will be with you always, if your heart stays open to us." Her hand slid down the length of his arms. She intertwined their fingers together. "You are the last of the Skywalkers. And you are the Galaxy's hope, and soon all the keepers of the light will rally to you. I'm sure of it."

Her words felt like a warm cloth laid on his shoulders. Tears spilled from his eyes again, but this time he knew they were tears of joy.

Finn sat down on the bed next to the General; next to his aunt. He kept holding her hand as she told him about his father, starting from the moment they met. They talked for hours, until Leia showed signs of tiredness, and they wished each other good night on her doorstep.

The residential building was eerily quiet in the middle of the night when Finn finally headed back to his bunk.

He was expecting the spectral shape that stood by the window in his room. 

Luke Skywalker looked older than he had on Crait, beard and hair thicker, the lines on his face more numerous. 

"Good evening, father," Finn whispered.

Luke smiled; and his smile made him look younger than Finn ever remembered. "Good evening, Iyanda," he replied.


End file.
